22.5 wsm

[Jason TQ]

Originally Posted by nmayeux

I looked at the G2, but two things are making me think otherwise... 1. Price. 2. Weight

Uncle Bud just bought a G2 Party, and he says that it is all he can do to load it by himself. I like the idea of the WSM, as I can just throw it in the back of a truck or my Explorer when by myself, which is pretty often.

The weight is a lot for one person. Erin and I can get it in and out of the truck just fine, but one person is too much if you are doing it all the time. We used our WSM primarily for chicken last year, but have used it with an Ique on the big meats plenty of times before and works really well.

Smoke Me Silly who won last week cooks on 4 WSM (3 of them 22's) and they use a Stoker to run the 22's. And they also won last year at Hawgin on Lanier. I say give it a whirl.

[boogiesnap]

yes, i compete with two 22's, and they work well. there are drawbacks however.

IMHO, if you can afford the chubby G2 i'd go that direction. your life will be alot simpler.

consider this, you WILL need to refuel if cooking overnight or all day even. i use the "hotbox" method. prevents ash kickup on the food and gives you complete access to the charcoal ring and fire. HOWEVER, lifting the large barrell and lid with 2-3 gallons in the water pan and 30 pounds of meat is a chore. prolly about as heavy as a chubby anyway.

also, it'll prolly be almost two bags of charcoal per cook. knickels and dimes in the big picture, but that gets annoying long term....A)the amount of charcoal i need to bring to a contest and cost, and B)every practice is two farkin bags. that adds up.

with all that said, they can put out as good a product as anything out there.

[Cayman1]

Originally Posted by nmayeux

Looking at your avatar, I had to laugh, as I just got back from Springfield Tuesday afternoon. If I had taken the time, I could have tried to hookup and look at your rigs!

Anytime, just let me know.

[dosvans]

We use 3-22in & 1-18inch WSM in all our comps. I use a stoker to run all the 22s and a Guru for the 18.
I use about 2 bags of kingsford BB and 1 bag of kingsford comp per contest. With using the temp controllers, I don't need to use any water in the pans, so the charcoal doesn't burn out as quick. We cooked Young Harris this past weekend and it got down in the 20's at night, and I still had plenty of coals in the morning.

I will admit the only drawback of my setup is the amount of equipment that I have to deal with every competition. There are times that I wish I had one big smoker mounted to a trailer.

So far, my setup has worked well so I will probably stick with it for a while!

[Funtimebbq]

One 22" and one 18" at comps for me. Use one Stoker System controller and 10 cfm fans for each. No water in either pan and only 1 1/2 bags of Kingsford blue for the total contest. I do not need to reload charcoal at any time. To add insulation during the nights, I use a Guru WSM cover on the 22".

Benny

[boogiesnap]

Originally Posted by Funtimebbq

One 22" and one 18" at comps for me. Use one Stoker System controller and 10 cfm fans for each. No water in either pan and only 1 1/2 bags of Kingsford blue for the total contest. I do not need to reload charcoal at any time. To add insulation during the nights, I use a Guru WSM cover on the 22".

Benny

i've been doing something very wrong then for the last 3 years.

each 22 ring can hold nearly an entire bag, plus a bag for refuel, and a bag for the chimney. add one for just in case for a total of 5.

i have a stoker too with the 10CFM. don't use it anymore however.

[Funtimebbq]

I use the 22 lb. bags of Kingsford if that helps.
As for charcoal starter, between both WSMs, I use maybe 30 briquets total. I let the Stoker System bring the charcoal up to temp. rather than dump a lot of hot coals in to start. The WSM cover from Guru really does keep my charcoal use down on the 22" as it insulates really well.
The 18" WSM is used only starting around 6:30 am until noon so it doesn't use much more that 1/4 of a bag.

Benny

[G$]

boogi, fwiw you also use a lot more charcoal than me per WSM. I have not needed to refuel a stoked WSM that I can ever recall at any contest. Liek Benny, we run them dry as Stoker recommends.

[boogiesnap]

thanks guys, i use stubbs, it's like a 15 pound bag i think, so that might explain the major discrepency in number of "bags". remove the insurance bag and itsmore like 60 pounds per contest.

i could probably go without filling the ring for the morning short cooks and conserve even more.

nonetheless, if i could do it over and afford it, i'd opt for the backwoods. 8-10 pounds of coal and 6-10 hour burns.

[Uncle Buds BBQ]

Originally Posted by fnbish

The weight is a lot for one person. Erin and I can get it in and out of the truck just fine, but one person is too much if you are doing it all the time. We used our WSM primarily for chicken last year, but have used it with an Ique on the big meats plenty of times before and works really well.

Smoke Me Silly who won last week cooks on 4 WSM (3 of them 22's) and they use a Stoker to run the 22's. And they also won last year at Hawgin on Lanier. I say give it a whirl.

Yes, I got a hernia at Young Harris loading the G2. Then it hit me....take the grates and charcoal basket out! Yes, you will not believe me but those grates are like 100 lbs....I am going to weigh them when I get home!!! Love the G2!!!

[bogyo1981]

We use 3 22.5 WSM at comps, 2 with the guru and 1 without. We also bring the water up to boiling on a turkey fryer befor putting it into the water pan. The cooker comes up to temp in about 20 minutes that way.

[georgiasmoke]

Originally Posted by boogiesnap

i've been doing something very wrong then for the last 3 years.

each 22 ring can hold nearly an entire bag, plus a bag for refuel, and a bag for the chimney. add one for just in case for a total of 5.

i have a stoker too with the 10CFM. don't use it anymore however.

Well since you don't use it, do you want to sell it?

[esselle]

If it is good enough for Slap yo Daddy.......
1 18.5 for the entire cook.